ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Judges Appointment on Tuesday unanimously approved the constitutional amendment to change the process of judges’ appointment.
Chaired by Senator Farooq H Naek, the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment Of Judges In Superior Courts was held at the Parliament House.
The committee unanimously approved the constitutional amendments in the relevant provision of the constitution regarding the judiciary. The amendments had been proposed by the chairperson of the committee, Senator Farooq.
The committee decided that the Supreme Court (SC) judges will be appointed on the basis of seniority, which shall be determined by their dates of appointment as a judge of a high court. If the judges’ appointment dates coincided, the decision will be made based on the basis of their age.
Previously, according to Article 175A of the Constitution, only the chief justice of Pakistan is appointed from among apex court judges solely on the basis of seniority.
For all other appointments to the Supreme Court, Article 175A of the Constitution empowers the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) to appoint judges to the top court and does not bind it to follow the principle of seniority for these appointments.
The committee further decided that ad hoc and acting judges of the SC will be appointed based on the parliamentary committee’s confirmation.
The committee also approved an amendment in Clause 3 of Article 184 of the Constitution, according to which when suo motu powers in human rights cases are exercised by the SC, the case would be heard by three judges of the apex court.
Appeal against the order can be filed within 30 days and would be decided by five SC judges within 60 days. It was further decided that if an appeal against an order under this Article was made, the order appealed against shall not be implemented during the pending decision.
Moreover, the committee approved the recommendation that the age of retirement for high court judges will be increased from 62 years to 65 years, similar to SC judges.
